


Escape Mission

by Quinis



Category: Chuck (TV), White Collar
Genre: Gen, Neal is Bryce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27175453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinis/pseuds/Quinis
Summary: Bryce Larkin certainly didn't expect the backup that arrived during his latest mission. But if they'll help him shake the dangerous tail he has, he'll take their help without question.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 84





	Escape Mission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KeJae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeJae/gifts).



> Happy Birthday KeJae!
> 
> KeJae wanted something with Peter and Neal and family/friends and fluff. They also wanted something maybe with Peter and Neal in prison together but, while I manage to get them locked up for a while, I didn't manage to add the prison. This story didn't go the way I thought it would (it ended up a crossover after all) and I'm not entirely happy with it but it's still a good time.
> 
> To everyone else: I know I haven't updated in a very long while. Work as really hit hard this year as my job is one which has been loaded with extra responsibilities this year. I've also been going through some kind of burnout where I just don't feel like typing. I am working on a story though and I will begin uploading it when it's finished.

Swerve around the cafe sign here and into the store next to it. The store has a second entry/exit he could leave out of. Move through the crowd at a walk, not a run.

Bryce glanced in every reflective surface he passed, not daring to look back. His heart was thudding away as he kept spotting his pursuer behind him. The stolen item in his pocket burned in his thoughts.

Who would have thought that his first mission after being stuck on desk duty for months would go so wrong? It was a routine retrieval mission, the kind he could complete in his sleep.

Except for that one involving a certain supercomputer but this was no Intersect and the enemy was no Casey.

Bryce walked right past the hotel he had been staying at. While he would have liked to leisurely clear out his hotel room like a regular tourist, there was nothing important or revealing up there. It wasn't worth trapping himself inside.

A hand grabbed his arm. The name shouted in his ear at the same time was the only reason he didn't lash out.

"Neal!"

Bryce flinched and glared into a familiar blocky face. He tried reflexively to pull himself out of Peter's grip but the FBI agent was good.

Bryce cursed. "Peter, I can explain while we walk but we can't stay here." Bryce risked a look at his pursuer, turning back to Peter in time to watch the realisation appear on the agent's face.

"What did you do?" Peter asked as Bryce started pulling him down the street.

"I took something that someone wants back," Bryce explained. "How did you find me?" Neal Caffrey, his favourite undercover identity, had been killed to protect those around him.

"Mozzie and some clues that you left us. Neal, those are members of the local crime syndicate."

"I'm aware."

"What did you take?"

It was amazing how quickly the human brain could work out a problem. Bryce pulled the SD card out of his pocket, pulled Peter's hand off his arm and pressed the SD card into it.

"Names and locations of their members on US soil," he answered. "You could probably use this to get the FBI to arrest them."

"You…" Indescribable emotions flickered across Peter's face. He seemed to sense that this was some kind of farewell and martyrdom from Bryce and gripped his arm. "None of that. We're both going back. If this is what you say it is, we might be able to broker a deal for you. Again."

"Peter, there's no way that's going to happen. The FBI has no intention of honoring any kind of deal with me. They'll let me work with you while trying to find a way to tether me to them forever." In fact, such behaviour had already been reported and the NSA and CIA were planning to confront the FBI about that sometime in the future.

"Let's focus on getting away first." Peter hailed a ride.

"Hold on!" Bryce protested as Peter insisted he get in. They could easily be trapped or reported.

Peter insisted again and shoved him in. Heart pounding in his ears, Bryce stole a look at the driver.

"Mozzie!"

"Why did I have to hear from the Suit that you were in this city?"

"I left you a message. It was even coded, just how you like it."

"I help you fake your death. I help you escape the country. And you can't even be bothered to tell me where you're going."

"He has a point. It was easier to contact Mozzie than it was to find you."

"I despise that the Suit is right."

"Look, they're going to be watching the airports. There's no way we can get out."

"We're not going by plane then," Mozzie said.

"Moz," Bryce sighed, having caught a car following them.

"I see it. Suit."

Peter pulled a duffle bag out from under the driver's seat. Inside were changes of clothes. Bryce took the offered clothes in surprise, pulling on a blue shirt and black jacket. Peter pulled on a bright coloured tropical shirt over his grey cardigan.

"You think you can lose them?" Mozzie asked Peter.

"I might work a desk job now, but I know how to lose a tail."

"What's the plan?" Bryce asked, deciding to just go with the flow and hoping that it'll all go right. He had seen Mozzie do more with less.

"The first phase is to get out of this city. If we're lucky, we'll be able to get out of this country. Then fly back home."

* * *

The train station was crowded. Bryce weaved his way through the crowd. Peter was able to keep a quick pace and throw a lot of turns into their route. He shed the shirt and dumped it at the bottom of some stairs.

"Lose the coat," he said at the same time. Now he was wearing grey and Bryce was in a blue shirt. Bryce followed along in interest as they made their way to a train and jumped on.

"Where did you get the tickets for this?" Bryce asked when Peter passed him a train ticket and a plane ticket.

"Hughes arranged it. He may be retired but he still has contacts in useful places. You're Daniel Charles and I'm Jeffrey Webster."

"Jeff, huh?"

"No." Jeff it was then.

"Who came up with the names?"

Peter shrugged. He opened the door to a private compartment and went in.

"Okay, hopefully Mozzie somehow came through," he muttered as he opened the luggage compartment.

Inside was a suitcase on wheels and a duffle bag. He tossed the duffle bag to Bryce.

"Change clothes again."

If Bryce hadn't seen Mozzie, he wouldn't have believed this was Peter. This was set up almost like any old spy mission. Bryce changed his clothes to the black slacks, black turtleneck and glasses which had been stored in the bag.

Peter was now in a off-white shirt and slacks and…

"Is that one of my fedoras?"

"El thinks it looks better on me," Peter joked as he tipped his hat.

Bryce snorted a laugh and settled in for the ride. This was nice. It was like having a team at his back. A team he wouldn't have to worry about attacking him in the middle of the night or selling him out to their enemies.

"Now you have time to explain what's going on, Neal."

"Thought I was Daniel?"

Peter gave him the look.

"I'm here for work," Bryce explained.

"What kind of work?"

"Something Mozzie wouldn't approve of." He wasn't going to explain any more than that. Peter wouldn't be able to arrest him anyway. Once they landed in New York, Bryce could disappear into the crowd.

* * *

Bryce forgot he handed the information to Peter. He needed to get the SD card back but Peter was really good at keeping it from him.

Really good.

It almost made the years of undercover work as Neal Caffrey a complete waste if he ended up accidentally training someone to beat him.

Bryce gave him. "Jeff, can I have the SD card back? I have to drop it off."

"It's Jeffrey. And I'll go with you."

"I don't want to put you in danger." Bryce realised a moment too late that this was the wrong thing to say if he wanted Peter to leave.

"Daniel, if you think I'm going to let you walk into danger without backup, you're wrong. Tell me where we're supposed to take this thing and why."

Bryce sighed. It was almost laughable how he had been certain he wouldn't make it out of that country and back home, only for Peter and Mozzie to arrive and make everything go smooth sailing.

* * *

Peter and Bryce hopped off the train at a later station and Bryce stumbled in fright.

A large fraction of the people moving around were dressed in similar clothes. Black shirts, white shirts, fedoras, all neat and professional like.

"What the?"

"Moz," was all Peter gave him as an answer before pulling him through the crowd. They bumped into a few people as Peter guided him to their connecting train.

"I can't believe you agreed to reuse one of my ideas."

"It gave Jones a start and there was little reason to not use it again."

"I'm so proud."

"Of course you are," Peter muttered as he jumped onto a new train.

The second train they rode until they reached another city in another country. This station was close to the airport so they didn't have to worry about getting a taxi.

"Can we change the tickets?" Bryce asked as they walked into the busy airport.

"Neal," Peter said in his disappointed voice.

"I told you, I'm here for work. The SD card is meant to be taken to Burbank in California. It's where I've been working."

Peter's expression shifted. "California, huh?" He thought about it. "We'll get a connecting flight and hopefully fully shake your tail."

Bryce was relieved that Peter agreed and also that he considered the possibility that they were still being followed.

"I can arrange for someone to pick us up. They'll dissuade any possible tails too." And hopefully not make a scene.

* * *

Casey made a scene. Bryce should have expected it. However, he really didn't expect the thing to upset Casey to be Peter's appearance.

Upon seconds of getting into Casey's van, Peter a little apprehensively, Casey had punched Peter out.

"Casey!" Bryce cried out in shock, only for everything to go black moments later.

* * *

Bryce's head was pounding. Even so, he shot awake, instantly looking for Peter. The walls and glass prison door meant that he was probably confined somewhere in Castle.

Peter was laying on the cot across the room from him, thankfully in the same cell. Bryce was glad that he woke up first because it gave him a few moments to gather his thoughts before Peter groaned and began to stir.

"We're being confined and I have no idea what this is about," Bryce explained instantly. "I'm just hoping that Casey hasn't gone rogue and has told Chuck about this."

"Is Casey the guy who hit me?"

"Hit us."

Peter winced and finally opened his eyes. After a few moments, he said, "he gave you a black eye."

Bryce cursed. "Seriously?" And he instantly started touching the area. It hurt but his eye wasn't swollen so he couldn't tell how bad it was.

"And who's Chuck?"

"Casey's boss. He's a good guy. Reminds me of you, if you were younger."

"Ouch." Peter put a hand over his heart. "So how much trouble are we in?"

"At this point, I'd say a 3 out of 10. I've read the Castle manual and can escape."

Peter nodded and then winced. "And Castle is?"

"This is Castle's holding cells. And Castle is a CIA substation in Burbank that is independently run."

"I must be concussed because I thought I heard you say, 'CIA'."

"I did." Bryce knew better than to nod. His head was still pounding. "But you're probably concussed. Don't go to sleep."

"C. I. A. As in the agents?"

"I said I was doing a job Mozzie wouldn't approve of."

"You're working with other feds?" Peter said, hand on his heart.

"I know Chuck from college."

"College?"

"That's correct, Bryce joined the CIA in college and then proceeded to wall me out." Chuck appeared in the doorway, grinning.

Bryce greeted him cheerfully. "And your man knocked me and my friend out. I think we're even."

"He also shot you," Chuck pointed out, "he's still proud of that, despite you living."

Peter's jaw dropped. "He shot you?"

Bryce winced. "Uhh… it's not as bad as Chuck makes it sound." He gave Chuck a look, hoping he would pick up on the unspoken message to not say anything more.

"It's worse," Chuck said with a grin. "Bryce was declared dead for about six months until we found his body."

Bryce chose not to look at Peter. He could feel the disapproving glare boring into his head. He'd take Chuck's wide grin over that. "Thanks Chuck."

"You're welcome. Now, time to get you two out of there." The door slid open. "I apologise for Casey's actions by the way. Peter here looks a lot like someone who tried to kill us once."

Peter sighed. "Of course I do." He gave Bryce the 'this is crazy' look. It had been a long time since Bryce had seen it. Peter had become used to Neal's and Mozzie's crazy plans long before Neal 'died'.

"How do you know my name? Everything I have on me should state my name as 'Jeffrey'."

"Well, we already have a 'Jeff'," Chuck said with a chuckle. "But we also looked you up in the time you've been out. Which is how we become aware that Casey mistook you for someone else."

"Can we leave then?" Bryce asked.

"You just got here."

"You probably already got the SD card off Peter, which means Beckman's got the information I was hired for so that's it. I'm going back to Paris and continuing my retirement."

"Beckman's upstairs," Chuck pointed out.

"Who's Beckman?"

"General Beckman is the person in charge. Think Hughes but with a military background." Bryce slowly drew himself to his feet. "Well, let's get this over with."

Peter was quiet the way over to the meeting room. It was a big room with a wall of computer monitors as well as a large table in the middle. Beckman was already seated at the head of the table. She looked angry but since she always looked like she had just sucked a lemon, Bryce couldn't be sure of her thoughts on his mission.

"Sit down, Larkin."

"I'd rather stand, thank you."

"Stop being contrary and just sit," Peter said to him as he pulled up his own seat. "I'm Peter Burke, nice to meet you."

"I wish I could say the same. However, Larkin was under strict orders to not reveal his mission to anyone outside of Chuck's team."

"Technically, he didn't," Peter responded. "I found him. And I still have no clue what was going on."

"You brought fake IDs and crafted a complex escape strategy without thinking you would need it?"

"It wasn't that complex," Peter said. "After all, I borrowed most of what we did from my background and stunts that Larkin had pulled in the past."

Hearing Peter say 'Larkin' was strange but Bryce found himself smiling. Peter was right, most of what they had pulled to escape had been stunts that Neal had used to escape Peter's watchful eye before his arrest.

"And the fake IDs?"

"My assumption now is that Larkin works for you, the CIA?" Peter commented. Beckman pursed her lips and nodded. "My assumption then was that he was pulling some kind of criminal heist."

Beckman took a breath and relaxed. "Yes. We were aware of Larkin's history as Neal Caffrey. We hadn't realised how close you two were. After all, he did escape the FBI."

Casey grunted at that. It sounded almost like a laugh.

"The FBI?" Sarah questioned. It was the first thing she had said since they had come in. If Bryce hadn't been looking for her, he might have missed her taking up a position against the wall.

"Bryce, as Neal, set up a deal with the FBI. He would help me solve cases in return for a 2 mile radius."

"He didn't need to make that deal. We had made use of him, even while you thought he was in prison."

"I didn't escape the FBI because of Peter," Bryce said. This was important to clear up. "I left because those above him were ignoring his recommendations and experience."

"Fools," Casey muttered it under his breath but Bryce and Peter were both close enough to hear it. Peter had the good grace to ignore it. After all, he didn't like the CIA so it made sense for the CIA to not like him.

Beckman pulled out a file. "Sign these documents."

"They are?"

"NDAs surrounding Bryce Larkin and the CIA. Basically everything you've learnt here or from Agent Larkin."

Peter opened the file, read through everything and signed it. "I want a copy of this."

"I can do that!" Chuck said, grabbing the file. Peter looked nervous about that but Bryce thanked Chuck. Chuck wouldn't do anything funny with the file.

* * *

Bryce introduced Peter to Chuck's team. He glossed over his past with Sarah and Casey and focused on how Bryce Larkin came to be and his role in the CIA as well as his role in Chuck's life.

"So you didn't leave Wit-Sec after learning the truth?"

"No. I let you assume that I did but all I really did was ask to be relocated away from Ellen and my mother. Wit-Sec set me up as 'Bryce Larkin' and sent me away with an athletic scholarship to Stanford."

"I didn't even know you were in Wit-Sec," Chuck said happily. He had learnt a lot since Peter had found Bryce. "I really need to look into Neal Caffrey as well."

"It's not hard. I believe there are papers out there about Neal," Bryce commented with a familiar grin. "I was a suave gentleman thief."

"Sounds awesome!"  
Bryce had no doubt that Chuck would find out whatever he wanted about Neal Caffrey, except how he pulled off some of his heists.

The wall opened and they walked out into a staff room. Peter looked around, trying to figure out where they were.

"Oh, you're still 'Jeff' by the way," Bryce mentioned to Peter.

"Jeffrey," Peter corrected.

"At least until the airport. We've set up Bryce and Peter with flights to New York as thanks for the SD card." Chuck ushered them out into the shop. The noise suddenly hit them with the people moving around and the electronics buzzing and beeping away.

"Is this… a Buy More?" Peter questioned as he looked around.

"Yep! Welcome to the Burbank Buy More!" Chuck announced. He pointed to his white shirt. "I'm the resident Nerd Herder-In-Charge! Bryce was working with us before we sent him off to do that mission-"

"No. I was on holiday in Paris before you asked me to do that mission."

"Who do you think was paying for that holiday?"

"I did! It wasn't a business expense, Chuck! It was a holiday. Employees take them sometimes."

Chuck slung his arm around Bryce's shoulders. "This is our other Nerd Herder. The one not in charge. He doesn't know what he's saying. We don't take holidays."

"The other employees don't! I have no idea why but they don't go anywhere."

"They're all introverts," Chuck said as if it was sad. "And I travel the world for 'offsite installs'."

Peter ruffled Bryce's hair, which was already a mess because of Chuck. "If he's coming back to New York, I think Bryce has quit."

"Yes, I quit," Bryce responded, yanking himself out of Chuck's grip. Since Peter knew he was alive, he was moving back to New York. June would be happy to have him back and the CIA would keep the FBI off his back. Bryce Larkin was not Neal Caffrey after all. It was only a coincidence that they both knew Peter Burke.

"Would you consider a contract with the FBI?" Peter asked.

Bryce laughed. "Let me get back to New York first!"


End file.
